


Flock

by Luki



Series: Dr. Stone Week: Luki Edition [2]
Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Day 2 - Nature, Dr. STONE Week, Gen, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24987637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luki/pseuds/Luki
Summary: Being petrified has an unexpected side effect - of the additional limb growing kind.
Series: Dr. Stone Week: Luki Edition [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811146
Comments: 5
Kudos: 209
Collections: Dr. Stone Week 2020





	Flock

**Author's Note:**

> JUST managed to get this completed in time for Day 2 after getting swamped with RL. Did just throw plot out the window, and it's a little weak structurally, but just wanted to write something where certain members of the cast grew wings...so I did.
> 
> Written for Dr. Stone Week Day 2: Nature - Wings

Less than 12 hours after breaking out of the stone, Senku is crippled by an agonising pain coming from his pelvis.

Granted, it started off small. At first he thought it was just an ache brought on from breaking out of the stone. As it got worse, he suspected a pulled muscle – but by the time the sun has set and he’s huddled under a tree he can barely walk.

He’s extremely grateful to be the only one around, because he yells and screams and sobs for nearly an hour. There may have even been prayers to gods he doesn’t believe in, as he takes in the agony near his tail bone and desperately tries to figure out what could cause this. All rational thought flees however, when he places his hands on his back where the pain is at its worst, and feels  _ something _ moving. Not shifting bones, or a trapped nerve, but something trying to burst its way out.

Crap...was his alien theory really true? Was the petrification some kind of...impregnation procedure?

He’s starting to wonder if it’s worth trying to find a sharp rock and try and rip whatever it is out himself, when the aberrations do it for him. He feels the skin ripping, followed by an unfamiliar rustle, and then-

Bliss. Like removing the cap from a bottle of fizzy cola, the relief from the loss of pressure nearly makes him pass out. He splays across the ground, panting heavily, as whatever burst from his body settles across his ass and the nearby ground.

The endorphins have him riding so high, he passes out before he can even ponder what just happened.

* * *

Senku wakes with the sunrise, and greets the day with a loud, profanity stricken yell when he realises exactly what is attached to his hips.

He’d had the excuse of pain and darkness for why he hadn’t realised the night before, but in the bright light of day, there is no denying that there is a pair of  _ wings _ protruding from his pelvis. They’re an absolute mess, coloured brown and dull red from the blood staining them, and feel a little stiff from the dried gore, but as Senku cranes his head to an impossible angle, he feels them shifting, and realises with some shock that he’s the one doing it. There’s an alien set of triggers in his head, wired up for his new appendages, and that nearly has him passing out again.

He recovers, and staggers to his feet, only stumbling once at the new weight as the wings droop and trail across the ground. While he can feel in his head how to pull them in, the limbs are new and weak, and covered in gunk that needs to come off if he wants to move them with any efficiency.

Once he’s in the river, he’s grateful to find the blood comes off without too much effort, and quickly realises that the wings are more of a chick’s than a bird. The feathers are formed of white down, and not meant to last long. A fact he’s grateful for, considering how many feathers an average bird has on their wings. They also have a small, sharp horn on the first joint, though a quick exam of each suggests they’re temporary and likely to fall off – probably the equivalent of a bird’s ‘egg teeth’ for hatching out of an egg.

As for where they’d burst out, Senku can’t quite see it, given that it’s in a blind spot, but his hands only feel the wing, and scabbed over skin. The lack of pain suggests that the process was successful...or Senku is riding high on adrenaline and going to die in a matter of hours. Given that there’s nothing he can do if it’s the former...he decides to continue on.

* * *

Several days later, Senku is still alive, has access to a temporary lean to shelter, two decently sharpened spears, and he’s finally figured out how to get his wings to set against his hips. It’s an unnatural feeling, the added weight, but he’s learning to adjust. He’s currently just grateful that if he must grow additional appendages, they appeared on his hips rather than the society’s preference for the shoulders. While it might have been more aesthetically pleasing, Senku knows enough about anatomy to suspect growing two additional limbs from either the spinal column or your shoulder blades would be a dangerous burden. He’s still not certain if flight will be possible, given that the wingspan and Senku’s own weight ratio are up in the air, but if it is – it would likely be impossible without knocking his arms out of their sockets. While he’s still not exactly sure of what’s going on with his anatomy now, at least having them attached to the pelvis keeps spinal and shoulder damage to a minimum. It also makes clothing easier – while making a knee length robe with the deer pelt would have been easier, he ends up having to create a shorter robe and skirt combo when it becomes clear the latter is far too uncomfortable long term.

His wings do eventually lose all their down over the course of a month – Senku collects every piece of it for his supplies – and is replaced by adult feathers. Most of these are the same white of the down, but the tips of the long primary and secondary feathers fade into the soft green, identical to his hair.

He really needs a mirror to properly examine them, but judging from what he can make out in clear water and his own side observations, they’re not built for long distance flying. While they are impressively wide, most of it comes from the length of the primary feathers. He was no ornithologist, but he suspected they were similar in shape to a hummingbird’s – designed for short, precise flights in calm conditions. Even if they can take him in the air, he will certainly not be soaring up in the clouds.

He huffs, folds the wings back against his side, before heading out to check his traps. Probably for the best that he’ll be relegated to short bursts – the weight and wingspan required for a human to take on long distance flight under their own power would probably crush Senku’s entire skeleton.

As such, it probably shouldn’t surprise him as much as it does when Taiju receives exactly that.

* * *

Much like Senku, Taiju drops to his knees on his first day of revival, complaining of lower back pain. But unlike Senku, he had someone at his side to help coax him through it, with hot water and clean clothes, so his friend doesn’t have to pass out covered in his own blood.

Once fully developed, Taiju’s wingspan is wider than Taiju is tall. Senku honestly doesn’t know how the other teen can stay standing under wings that heavy. He’s fairly certain the brown wings are similar to that of geese or swans. Big, obvious, and designed for the marathon flight. Not that Taiju seems capable of it – he’s having enough trouble keeping them folded at the side and not bashing into every tree he comes across. Even if he could fly, Senku can guarantee he’ll break most of his bones on landing.

Senku however, has started risking it, letting the odd instincts in the back of his head guide him, and letting the wings flap in the air. He won’t deny it, there’s a large part of him that gets giddy when he feels his feet leave the ground, and fly halfway up a cliff or to the top of a tree for supplies. But his original hypothesis is correct – he can only handle short, intense flights. Using them as a means of travel is ten billion percent impossible.

The exercise is also necessary, because the wings seem to have a mind of their own. Senku suspects it’s because the limbs are new, and much like a child trying to learn how to walk, the nerves are raw and reacting to new stimuli with all barrels loaded. He hears a loud noise, they’re out and flared to make him look bigger. There’s a stiff breeze, they pin so close to his body he’s almost tripping over them. When he’s irritated or frustrated, they bristle and ruffle like a wet cat. It’s practically instinctive, and Senku hates not having control – hopefully exercising them will give him a better handle on them – and at least his are smaller than Taiju, who has fallen to the floor from when his wings startled flaring on more than one occasion.

When they finally achieve a successful revival fluid recipe, Senku isn’t surprised when Taiju chooses Yuzuriha. Once you strip away the nostalgia and Taiju’s own sappy heart, she’s a smart choice. Before they head out, he makes a point to put together the necessary supplies for when her wings break out, and ponders what the girl will end up with. Something short and focused like himself, or closer to Taiju’s intimidating pair?

It’s a question that remains unanswered, because Shishio Tsukasa ends up being the one revived.

* * *

The newest revival takes to the existence of wings startlingly well. At first, he thinks they’re just some kind of strange outfit, but when Taiju starts flapping in excitement at Tsukasa’s declaration to protect them, his eyes go impossibly wide.

“ Is this heaven?” he asks, head focused on Senku and his white plumage. Senku immediately laughs.

“ Not even close,” Senku says. “Come on, we’ll take you back and explain the situation. You’re going to need to prepare for yours anyway.”

“ Mine?” Tsukasa repeats, falling into step.

“ Yeah. Wings are a thing in this new world,” Senku continues, and starts to eye Tsukasa up. “You’re going to be a pain. Bet you’ll thrash throughout it.”

As it turns out, Senku’s ten billion percent wrong. While Tsukasa does spend his evening on the ground, and hisses through his teeth while his pelvis rips apart, he’s shockingly calm throughout it.

“ I’m a martial artist,” he says through controlled breaths. “I know how to handle pain.”

“ Still, I’m impressed,” Senku tells him, handing him a cold towel to wipe the sweat off his face. “Neither of us handled it nearly as well.”

“ I screamed like a baby,” Taiju agrees.

Tsukasa manages to maintain his composure right up until they burst out, when the sound that comes from his mouth is very mouth a half muffled curse, and he drops to the floor in a boneless lump when the pain recedes, looking just as grateful as they’d been once it’s over, and ends up falling asleep as Senku and Taiju wipe the stubby wings free of the blood. In the morning, Senku wakes up to find him sitting up, stretching out the limbs and seeing how easy it is to make them move.

“ Why wings?” he asks, when he realises Senku is up. “Of all the side effects that the petrification could cause, why give us wings?”

“ Good question,” Senku says. “To be honest, I’m not sure. There’s not enough information to do more than theorise.”

“ I think it’s cause it affected swallows first!” Taiju says, shuffling out of his sleeping bag at the sound of their voices. “Maybe something got left behind when it switched from birds to people.”

Tsukasa glances over at Senku, who shrugs noncommittally. It actually wasn’t a bad theory, and Senku had been impressed that the oaf had made the connection.

“ It’s possible, but I doubt it,” Senku says. “In that case, we’d all have swallow wings.”

He gestures at his shorter, stubbier wings, then at Taiju’s behemoths. “These are clearly from different species.”

“ Are they dangerous?” Tsukasa then asks, sitting up and plucking at the soft white down.

“ Hard to say, but I’ve had them for a year without any obvious side effects,” Senku says. “I suspect there’ll be problems eventually. We  _ are  _ growing an extra set of limbs. Plus we’re all young, and going through puberty. What’s going to happen when someone older has to grow them?”

Tsukasa nods. “Indeed. Especially if you can’t predict what type they’ll grow. I may be wrong, but mine appear shorter than yours.”

“ Oh that’s just cause they don’t have feathers yet,” Taiju says. “Wait a month, and I bet they’ll be huge.”

Senku, however, suspects Tsukasa is right. His are significantly smaller than theirs in comparison to his body type. His own ruffle a little, almost subconsciously.

“ Actually, he’s got a point,” Senku tells Taiju. “I’ve got a feeling his are going to look a lot different from ours. Pretty sure you won’t be taking to the sky with these.”

He could be wrong, but Tsukasa takes the knowledge with nothing more than an accepting nod, and moves on.

For all his strength, the teen is quiet and soft spoken, and Taiju takes to him quickly. Senku wants to like him, but he’s painfully aware that Tsukasa is strong enough to have no restraints in this world – and he’s not sure what the man will do when he realises that.

The ultimate irony of this fact however, is that Tsukasa’s wings are clearly lacking any flight capability. As expected, they’re short and stubby – and as the brown feathers come in, Senku is reminded of an ostrich. Wings for a fast, land-based bird, rather than the sky.

Still, when Tsukasa spreads them out, and confesses his own ideal world, Senku doesn’t think he’s seen anything more intimidating.

* * *

The girl he finds trapped in the forest, doesn’t have wings.

“ I’m Kohaku,” she says, once she’s free. “And I think I’ve taken quite a liking to you.”

Senku grimaces, and shuts that future disaster down  _ flat _ . Thankfully, Kohaku turns out to be a practical woman, and moves on quickly.

She also doesn’t have any noticeable crack marks, but the wings, and her reactions to Senku’s, is pretty conclusive. She’s not a revived – or even an immediate descendant of one.

“ Are you a god?” she asks, looking at the white wings with shocking intensity, and seems rather put out when he bursts into laughter.

“ God, no,” he jokes, and she scowls, pointing at the wings he’s folding away.

“ Then, some kind of demon?” she questions, and Senku rolls his eyes.

“ Don’t be hysterical. I’m human, just like you.”

“ Humans don’t have wings,” Kohaku defends, and Senku shrugs.

“ We do now,” he says, and she smiles back.

“ Good, then this isn’t sacrilegious” she says, and darts in, quickly placing one hand on Senku’s closest wing and lightly stroking.

“ Hey!” Senku yelps, jerking back. Kohaku doesn’t follow, but merely leans back on her heels.

“ They’re real,” she whispers. “Just like that long haired demon’s.”

“ Long haired...Tsukasa isn’t a demon,” Senku says. “Just a guy with some misplaced ideals.”

Kohaku frowns. “How come you can fly and he can’t?”

“ Why are your eyes blue and mine are red,” Senku counters. “Besides, I can’t fly. Not really.”

She looks up at the pulley, where she’d seen him flap up to reach the handle, and smiles.

“ I don’t know. That seemed enough like flight to me.”

Senku could get into a long, detailed explanation regarding aviation, but he suspects most of it will go over her head, and it’s already been a long day, so in a rare feat, he holds his tongue. They hunker down for the night, and she definitely gets easier to talk to once the wings are shuffled into the sleeping bag and out of sight, and Senku looks more like the snarky gremlin he is and not some fallen deity from Kohaku’s religious doctrine. While Kohaku is definitely on guard, she seems happy to lead him to her village to get aid in defeating the ‘demon man, Tsukasa’ and introduce him to someone, and in the morning, they set off.

After a few minutes, it’s pretty clear she’s desperate to touch his wings again. Senku keeps catching her staring at them out of the corner of his eye, or spots her hands twitching closer to the primaries. He can hardly blame her – if he’d ran into someone with wings, he’d be desperate to have a better look. But Senku’s never been the type to initiate physical interactions, so if she wants to look, she’d just better ask next time.

When they make it to the village, Senku’s about ready to dance with joy. This settlement has clearly been here years, with proof of several generations and a population of around forty. Granted, there’s not much evidence of science, but he started with nothing, he’s done more with less.

Entering the village however, isn’t that simple. Kohaku escorts him to the bridge, only to have spears pointed straight at him. His wings immediately flare up – and he’s treated to his second reaction from a stone world native.

“ Oh my God!” the blond one – Senku thinks Kohaku called him Ginro - wails, almost dropping the speak as he gapes at the wings. “Or, your God, what? Kohaku!”

The brunet however, tries to hide his panic.

“ Don’t take another step demon!” Kinro yells, sticking the spear out towards him.

“ Kinro, he’s not a demon!” Kohaku tells them, but the guard shakes his head.

“ Demon, god, or monster, rules are rules,” he says. “He can’t set foot in the village, no matter what he tries.”

Ginro is furiously nodding along, although he’s definitely trying to inch behind the taller Kinro, and Senku decides to interject, grabbing a bar of soap and using the hot spring water to create bubbles – purely for research purposes into how developed the society is, of course.

The answer is disappointing.

“ Sorcery!” Kohaku gasps, while the guards panic and try to stab the bubbles as if fearing for their lives.

“ What terrifying spell is this?” Kinro demands, and Senku braces himself for a very long and uphill battle to get the village onboard.

Ginro starts wailing about them multiplying, before he suddenly starts running to the side, howling for ‘Chrome’ to come and help – which he does in a ridiculously dramatic entrance. He has a frigging cape for gods sake.

Still, he gets Senku’s attention when, after mocking his fellow villagers for their ignorance, pops a few bubbles and explains how easy they are to make.

Not that the impression sticks. The second he turns to face Senku and spots his wings, his jaw is on the floor and he looks like he’s been socked in the face.

“ Holy crap! Are you a Sorcery God?” Chrome yells, eyes practically glowing in delight. He darts forward, and Senku squawks when Chrome is suddenly on his knees, one of his wings in his hands while the ‘sorcerer’ prods at it.

“ Wow, it’s real!” he says. “It’s not glued on, it’s a real wing. You must be a god! Or at least an incredible sorcerer! How do I get a pair?”

Senku’s wings flap a little in irritation, and he kicks the other teen away. Seriously, what is with this village and their touchy feely-ness?

“ I’m not a God! Or a sorcerer. I’m a scientist,” Senku corrects, choosing to ignore the way Kohaku is giggling.

Chrome doesn’t like the answer, and insists on a ‘sorcerer vs science’ battle, and if he wins, Senku leaves after telling him how to obtain the wings. Senku would be happy to tell him right now...but since he has no intention of losing, agrees.

\- And after thoroughly crushing the primitive (but still very skilled and creative considering the limitations he has to work with, Senku will give him that) sorcerer and winning both his collection and his aid, he’s got a lifetime of minerals and rocks to drool over.

Once he’s gotten over his depression from losing to a ‘fake sorcerer god,’ Chrome also takes to his offerings of science like a duck to water. While the guards aren’t quite on board, the golden spear has Chrome’s eyes gleaming, and Senku decides to tell him about the world before petrification. And once he’s recovered from his breakdown, he gives Senku the answer he needs to win over the village. The sulfa drug.

He just really hopes it doesn’t get recorded down as something out of ‘gods plan…’

* * *

“ Oh wow, food from the gods, I must be in heaven!”

Senku rolls his eyes at the chubby villagers' words, but keeps handing out bowls of ramen. He’s starting to get used to that reaction, and once he puts them to work, he’s pretty sure it’ll get traded for ‘demon’ and then human pretty quickly.

The villagers don’t really seem to know what to make of him. If he’d just wandered into town without the wings, he suspects he’d be left to his own devices provided he left the village alone, but once the guards (Kohaku suspects it was Ginro) spread the word that Chrome’s new best friend had a pair of white wings, he got a lot of gawkers. It would have been worth it if they’d stuck around long enough to help, but the second he called out or took one step towards them, they’d bolt back to the village in terror.

The only exception was a little Suika, who has the same twitchy fingers as Kohaku, and Senku’s about ready to make bets on which of them breaks and touches his wings first.

So, ramen. If the will of a sorcery god isn’t enough to lure the villagers into helping him, he’ll bribe them.

“ This ramen is making me wickedly thirsty. A cola would be great...”

Senku stills, hand hovering above his next bowl.

“ Cola...”

His head snaps towards the crowd, and Kohaku quickly takes note, locating a black and white hairstyle that cannot belong to a villager.

“ You know that guy?” Kohaku asks. Senku shakes his head, and she and the brothers go to work.

He shouldn’t be surprised. Tsukasa was many things, and thorough was definitely one of them.

“ Answer truthfully, are you with the long haired demon?” Kohaku asks him, and the stranger stands. He at least doesn’t seem like a warrior – he’s heavily dressed, but with a body type pretty similar to Senku’s own.

“ Well, while I admittedly don’t mind the attention of a cute little thing like you, I believe you must have mistaken me for somebody else. I’m afraid I haven’t met any long haired ‘demons,’ he says. “I’ve been wandering all on my lonesome since breaking out of the stone.”

“ Hah! Liar!” Kohaku says, bringing her blade closer. “You **must** be one of his followers.”

The stranger pouts. “Oh my, what makes you say that?”

Kohaku smiles triumphantly.

“ If you broke out of the stone, you’d have wings like Senku!”

“ Huh, broke out of the stone?” one of the villagers asks, and Senku sees Chrome step closer to him.

“ Could Tsukasa have found another village and won them over?” he asks. Senku shakes his head.

“ No. Kohaku’s wrong,” he says. “At least about the stone.”

Chrome frowns, but his attention is distracted when the stranger gives out a long suffering sigh, and from beneath his long purple coat, two skinny limbs slip out. Everyone immediately shrieks – some of the villagers even flee behind Kinro and Ginro – but Senku’s eyes narrow.

“ Calm down, that’s just what wings look like without feathers,” he says, staring at the wing, covered in nothing but white down and looking more like alien tentacles than aerodynamic limbs.

“ Well, if nothing else, you’ve definitely only broke out recently,” he says to the other modern man. “I’m guessing, what? A week? Two?”

“ Ten days,” Gen says with a butter-wouldn’t-melt smile. “I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out. Yours are quite beautiful.”

Senku’s wings fluff up slightly – sometimes he swears they have a mind of their own, especially if they’re going to react to false flattery.

“ Asagiri Gen, right?” he asks. “Face looks familiar.”

“ I thought you said you didn’t know him!” Kohaku argues, and Senku shrugs.

“ I don’t. But I know of him. He’s a trashy magician who writes psychology books.”

“ Ah, read my work have you? That’s wonderful,” Gen says. “But please, call me a mentalist.”

He then looks down, and shuffles the new limbs back under his coat. “And I must say, I could write a whole series on the mental ramifications of these little additions. What I wouldn’t give for pen and paper.”

He then starts speaking to Kinro and Ginro, hamming up his defenceless-little-me act. They’re half buying it, and Ginro’s only got eyes for the ramen. But the other villagers are staying back, their eyes focused on his waist and looking a little horrified.

...That was a calculated move, Senku realises. Gen understands human psychology, he has to have known how a primitive culture would react to seeing his fledgling wings, far too awkward looking to be recognisable as ‘wings.’ It makes him appear harmless, and yet at the same time, terrifying. People will choose to leave him alone unless they have no other choice.

For that matter, Gen didn’t have to approach them. It would have been far more tactical to watch from a distance – the ramen stand, and Senku, with his wings on full display, were not exactly hard to spot. He could have turned tail and fled without Senku being none the wiser.

In conclusion, Gen is a spy. But he’s not a loyal one. Senku just needs to prove his side is worth following.

He grins. But first, he’s going to make Gen pay for that bowl.

* * *

“ What kind of wings did Yuzuriha end up with?” Senku asks, once Gen has finally dropped his ‘innocent, lost lamb’ act, and helped them create the magnet by spooking Magma with a few cheap tricks. He’s waiting for the copper to cool, so they can cut it to shape. His face is starting to swell and itch – he’s always had a bad reaction to the sap in lacquer, and it’s going to be an annoying few hours, so he wants an answer before his face blows up like a balloon.

It had been one of the worst decisions he’d had to make, leaving Yuzuriha with Taiju a mere day after growing her wings. She’d already had to endure hardship, being made to hike to Hakone while her hips started to throb. The waters had helped, but she’d still had to handle the painful process in the middle of nowhere, with limited supplies, and having to hold back on screams to keep Tsukasa from finding them. His friend had been incredible to do what she had under those conditions.

Gen, probably not knowing the full history, just shrugs.

“ They’re wide, but not particularly long, and she seems happy enough with them – Tsukasa revived an ornithologist some time ago on the grounds that we need more information on the wings-”

“ Oh, so that science is just fine in the Kingdom of Might, huh?” Senku mocks.

“ -And I believe she has something similar to a sparrow.”

Senku nods. He can even picture it – Yuzuriha with wings almost as wide as they are long, tucked to her sides, flitting about on whatever project has currently caught her attention.

“ I also know they miss you,” Gen says. “Both her and Taiju. But not in the mourning way. For all that they visit a grave, it was clear they were going through the motions. I fully expected to find you alive.”

“ Oh? Did you tell Tsukasa that?” Senku asks. Gen smiles.

“ Now, now, Senku. A mentalist never reveals more than he needs to.”

Senku hides a grin.

* * *

Two months after Gen fled in the early hours of the morning, Senku finally steps foot in the village in an attempt to perform a legal – if cheating ever so slightly – coup.

Also come the bout is the return of their wayward mentalist, and Gen’s wings have become the most flamboyant Senku’s seen. While they don’t have Taiju’s wingspan, the secondary and primary figures are different in size and style – similar to a bird of paradise or another tropical bird. They also match his hairstyle, with a distinct black and white pattern dotted throughout, and give him a  _ very  _ intimidating appearance when he ‘appears’ on top of the Chief’s hut, wings arched high and up behind him as he places the ‘curse’ on Magma.

He’s also got enough of a wingspan to glide, and he clearly loves showing off, choosing any possible position of height, and spreading out the wings to sail down from his position to land near Senku, before walking out the village. From the hushed whispers Senku picked up, the Mentalist has picked up a few admiring fans from that little stunt, the days of his alien limbs long forgotten – and if he sticks around, might have to keep an eye on his feathers or risk waking up with half of them plucked out. As such, he makes a point to ask Kaseki to keep him close, and then hides him out at the base with a bottle of his beloved cola until he can get approval of the village.

* * *

Hyoga’s wings are those of a bird of prey. Senku isn’t sure he could narrow it down further, but he’s watched the birds in the forest enough to recognise that type of feather array. He doesn’t use them much, only spreading out and flapping when he wishes to step back or move forward at speed. If there’s any meaning to the wings, that is very telling.

Homura’s on the other hand, have a shape similar to Senku’s, only in soft pink. She’s also very good at controlling them, flapping them as she jumps and hops, gaining height and making turns a normal gymnast could only dream of. Compared to the rest of their team, whose wings are either that of land birds or significantly too small to carry their weight, they fly to the top of the tree to escape the poison gas with little difficulty, leaving the others to frantically climb.

As he stares up at the enemy behind his gas mask, listening to them demanding to know if he created the gas, he spreads his wings out wide, laughs, and lies like a champion.

* * *

“ So what happens once we’ve won the war?” Gen asks, as the two of them walk back to Chrome’s hut, a long day of working on the ridiculous cellphone roadmap behind them. “Tsukasa’s flock is very loyal to him.”

“ Flock?” Senku repeats, and Gen grins back.

“ Don’t look at me. Someone said it as a joke, and it stuck. Personally, I prefer aviary. Your mentality is the more...freeing, of the two. Even if it is backbreaking work.”

Gens' wings ruffle up, and he stretches them out. Senku’s eyes are almost subconsciously drawn to the pattern on the longer feathers, and shifts as he feels his own want to stretch out.

“ I have to ask,” Gen says. “What is your opinion on the wings? I’ve grown fond of mine, but it does seem a strange side effect. What could have been the point?”

Senku shakes his head. “I don’t know. Between trying to solve the petrification, then getting focused on the sulfa drug, there wasn’t enough time to think about it. But from what little data I have, I’m pretty sure it was intentional.”

“ What makes you say that?” Gen asks, as they reach the foot of Chrome’s shed. Senku shrugs, and spreads his wings. Gen’s start to spread almost instinctively in reaction, and Senku grabs one once it’s slipped past his coat, Gen quickly going still to see what he’ll do.

“ Look at how different these are,” Senku says, gesturing between his own wing and Gen's. “Everyone was hit by the same blast, and yet two guys of a similar age, height, and weight, ended up with drastically different wings. Tsukasa, Hyoga, Taiju, all different. Homura’s come close to mine, but out of the kingdom, does anyone have wings similar to you?

Gen’s face is impassive, even as he mentally goes through his old allies.

“ One, I think,” he says. “But they were still growing in when I left.”

“ Right, so even after what? A couple dozen revivals all from a specific radius, and the wings are still ridiculously varied? If this was accidental, it’s more likely that we’d all have the same set.”

He tucks his wings back and lets go of Gen’s, moving back and crossing his arms. “It’s likely that something in the petrification triggered something in our DNA, forced to activate once depretrification began. Maybe the necessary proteins came from the stone – they managed to keep us alive for thousands of years, so also having an effect on the genetic level isn’t that much of a stretch.”

Gen blinks, and tugs his wing back, letting it settle underneath his coat.

“ So if it was intentional, why?”

“ That I can’t answer,” Senku says. “Maybe once more of the world is revived, I’ll have time to focus and study the phenomenon, but for now, it remains a mystery.”

He grins, and stares up at the sky.

“ You never know, maybe one day we’ll hunt down the source of the petrification, and find answers there,” he says. “For now, all we can do is collect data.”

Gen hums in reply, and follows his gaze upwards.

“ I wonder...perhaps it was a gift.”

Senku frowns, turning to face him.

“ Gift, mentalist?”

“ Hasn’t humanity always stared up at the sky?” Gen says, a calm smile on his face. “We might be starting from scratch, but this time, we’re armed with the one thing we’ve always envied.”

He drops his head and smirks. “Who knows, once society has reformed, in another few thousand years, another petrification ray will hit and revive us all with fish tails.”

Senku huffs. “I hope not. Difficult to launch a rocket with gills.”

But as he stops and thinks about it, he can see Gen’s point. “But I guess it makes as much sense as anything else.”

“ Oh don’t patronise me,” Gen says, though his face suggests he doesn’t mean it. “Thankfully, much like you, I can live without an answer for now. I’m sure if the Kingdom of Science triumphs, we’ll find it sooner or later.”

He tucks his hands into his coat, and flaps his wings, using them to fly up to the entrance of Chrome’s hut. “Goodnight Senku.”

“ Right behind you, Mentalist,” Senku answers, and looks back up one more time, feeling the feathers ruffle in the calm wind of the evening.

A gift, huh?

“ If it was, I’ll have to thank them in person,” he says to himself. “If they’re still around, they’d better have a good explanation for why.”

He shakes his head, lets the thoughts fade, and flies to join Gen and Chrome in the hut to sleep.


End file.
